Could Florida’s nation-leading number of Jan. 6 rioters cash in from President Donald Trump’s controversial $1.776 billion fund?
The settlement agreement ending Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service created “The Anti-Weaponization Fund” to be stuffed with almost $2 billion worth of U.S. taxpayer money.
“The Fund will have the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants,” said the Justice Department in a statement.
In Florida, those claimants could include the 150-plus people in the state that faced legal consequences, to varying degrees of severity, for their roles in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The announcement of the fund unleashed a torrent of criticism and pushback. Here are three things to know about the controversy and firestorm over the fund.
The Jan. 6 rioters committed serious offenses
Some assaulted police officers trying to protect the Capitol. Others simply faced trespassing and disorderly conduct type offenses.
But two leaders of the Oath Keepers militant group were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges in November 2022.
“As this case shows, breaking the law in an attempt to undermine the functioning of American democracy will not be tolerated” said FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement at the time.
A year later, more than a handful of members of the Proud Boys, including the far-right group’s former leader, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio of Miami, were also found guilty of sedition and other charges.
They all received pardons from Trump after he was sworn in to a second White House term in January 2025.
The Miami New Times reported Tarrio is considering seeking a pay out.
Critics decry a ‘slush’ fund for Trump’s political allies
The Congressional Integrity Project said the effort is a “slush fund” that will be “bankrolled by taxpayers.” The watchdog group said it will be abused to “reward allies who claim they were targeted by the Biden administration.”
The group added the fund will be managed with little independent oversight since its members will be largely chosen by the U.S. attorney general.
Not to mention, other critics have said, the fund end up financing and plowing money into the hands of extremist individuals and organizations intent on undermining and attacking U.S. democracy and institutions.
Democrats oppose it, this Florida Republican wants to know more
Roughly 100 Democrats in Congress have blasted the fund and have lined up against it. U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, a West Palm Beach Democrat, is among them.
“I was in the Capitol on January 6 when a violent mob attacked the Capitol police and our democracy, so I saw firsthand the consequences when leaders abuse their power,” Frankel said in a statement. “Now President Trump is using his own Justice Department to create a billion-dollar fund that could reward political allies and January 6 defendants while shielding himself and his businesses from accountability. Americans want lower costs, safer communities, and a government that works for them — not taxpayer-funded payouts for the President’s inner circle.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Haridopolos, a Melbourne Republican, said in a television discussion the violence at the Capitol was “the wrong thing to do.”
Haridopolos deferred on whether the fund was appropriate.
“I want to understand the fund better,” he said.
But the congressman indicated he was open to seeing if people applying for the money “can make the case” they should be compensated.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Will Florida Jan. 6 Capitol attack defendants cash in on Trump fund?
Reporting by Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
